Italian Sausage Casserole

Ingredients:

8 sweet Italian sausages

1 package of dried mushrooms

2 to 3 cups of chicken broth

1 to 2 cups of heavy cream

Garlic powder and crushed pepper (freshly ground peppercorns)

3 cups of small pasta shells

2 to 3 cups of  Sargento four cheese mix

Spray an oven pan with cooking spray.  Sprinkle sausages with garlic powder, cut a slit in them and bake at 400F for about 15 minutes.  If you want to render off the fat, discard it after cooking the sausages.

In a glass bowl, pour 2 cups of chicken broth over the dried mushrooms.  It will only take about five minutes to reinforce the mushrooms.  Remove the mushrooms from the bowl and add to the sausages to bake for the remainder of the sausage baking time.

Pour the broth into a large saucepan and bring to a boil.   Add two tablespoons of butter, the pasta and 2 cups of heavy cream.  Cook pasta until al dente.    Remove the pan from heat when pasta is cooked, cover and allow to set for a minute or two without discarding the remaining broth.

Assembly:

 
Remove the sausage pan from oven.  Pour the sausage and mushroom mixture into a large serving bowl.  Add the pasta and leftover broth into the bowl, mixing as you go along.  Add all the cheese.  Mix generously.  The sausage and butter should have provided enough salt for the dish so do not add any salt.